Forbes and Sports Money

Forbes and Sports Money

As if you needed any more proof of how big sports can be, you can go to the Forbes website and find a category under the business section dedicated to http://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney/ . Forbes is well recognized for being a major business publication, and if they are willing to shell out some prime real estate space for sports, then anyone involved in business would be wise to do the same. There are different types of posts every week involving the money of sports, and one that caught my eye tonight involved e-sports, otherwise known as video games. This is a hugely popular sport, and I’m sure you know at least someone that has at one point in time played in a Halo or Call of Duty tournament. Video games have become part of culture for many consumers out there. You first have your MMORPG games, such as World of Warcraft. (just google the South Park episode for World of Warcraft to see how big this community is.) Then there’s the sports games, with the hugely popular Madden dominating every year, with the Madden championships being played in front of a live audience on large screens across huge buildings in the middle of cities. Last, but not least, you have the huge online multiplayer first person shooter games, like Call of Duty. These games are just a few examples, but nearly every game out there has some kind of super fan following, and finding a way to capture this fandom can help you in your business. As with all our posts, we want to find something that we can use to be able to help you improve some aspect of your business.

The clear answer is to host e-sports tournaments at your place of business, with the restaurants and bars making the most sense. However, you can have a tournament for any business if you are creative enough to make them want to spend their time with you. Let’s say you are a local car dealership, and you are looking for more ways to bring in potential buying drivers. You can host a Forza Motorsport tournament, with the winner taking home a coupon off a car for your store. Maybe you put that person on the Driver’s Wall of Fame, where they will want to tell all their friends to come see your picture, which just so happens to also be the oil change shop part of your store. You could let that person pass out so many “VIP” passes to free oil change at your place after they do a test drive with you, where you can give them the wow factor for whenever they are ready to buy a car. Then there’s the social media aspect of the tournament. How many people will be posting pictures, tweeting, and everything else to check into Frank’s Futuristic Car Shop just because you offered a free tournament for things that go under the marketing budget.

The story here is we can broaden our thoughts about sports into way more arenas than the mainstream sports. Everything out there seems like it’s a sport nowadays, and there are subtle and non-subtle ways for businesses of all types to harness the fandom to their advantage. Don’t fight it, accept it as a sport, and the fans will accept you as a place they want to give money to.

If you have thoughts about this topic, or anything else for that matter, please leave a comment below. The more engagement we can get on this site, the more we can all learn from each other and get more ideas for making the world a more profitable place for small businesses that want to utilize the power of sports enthusiasm.